Child Maltreatment in Families Receiving Mandatory Versus Voluntary Child Protection Support:A Matched Cohort Study

Child safety is an important outcome of child protection services (CPSs); however, this is often assessed in terms of official registries (e.g., rereports). Little empirical evidence is available about how the frequency of child maltreatment changes during CPS intervention by using self-report measures. The present study evaluates the frequency of child maltreatment experienced by children receiving mandatory child protection support compared to carefully matched children receiving voluntary child protection support. The current study is part of an ongoing Dutch longitudinal study on family violence consisting of several cohorts with similar designs. Both parents and children reported on the frequency of child maltreatment using validated questionnaires at two timepoints, 12 months apart. To facilitate careful comparison, both groups were matched using propensity scores based on background variables, resulting in two groups of N = 178 children. GLMM analyses showed a significant decrease in the mean number of child maltreatment incidents over time in the total group. However, this decrease did not differ for children receiving mandatory and voluntary child protection support. The findings indicate that, despite possible motivational challenges in the mandatory group, mandatory child protection support elicits comparable results as voluntary support. Implications for further research and practice are discussed.</p

Child Maltreatment in Families Receiving Mandatory Versus Voluntary Child Protection Support:A Matched Cohort Study

Child safety is an important outcome of child protection services (CPSs); however, this is often assessed in terms of official registries (e.g., rereports). Little empirical evidence is available about how the frequency of child maltreatment changes during CPS intervention by using self-report measures. The present study evaluates the frequency of child maltreatment experienced by children receiving mandatory child protection support compared to carefully matched children receiving voluntary child protection support. The current study is part of an ongoing Dutch longitudinal study on family violence consisting of several cohorts with similar designs. Both parents and children reported on the frequency of child maltreatment using validated questionnaires at two timepoints, 12 months apart. To facilitate careful comparison, both groups were matched using propensity scores based on background variables, resulting in two groups of N = 178 children. GLMM analyses showed a significant decrease in the mean number of child maltreatment incidents over time in the total group. However, this decrease did not differ for children receiving mandatory and voluntary child protection support. The findings indicate that, despite possible motivational challenges in the mandatory group, mandatory child protection support elicits comparable results as voluntary support. Implications for further research and practice are discussed.</p

The role of supportive parenting and stress reactivity in the development of self-regulation in early childhood

Maternal sensitivity and supportive discipline are important determinants of child self-regulation. Some evidence suggests that specific genetic or temperamental markers determine children’s susceptibility to the impact of maternal parenting on child self-regulation. Cortisol reactivity as a susceptibility marker moderating the relation between maternal parenting and child self-regulation has not yet been studied. In this longitudinal population-based study (N = 258), the moderating role of infant cortisol stress response to the Strange Situation Procedure at age 1 was examined in the association between parenting (sensitivity and supportive discipline) at age 3 and child self-regulation at age 3 and 4. Maternal sensitivity and supportive discipline were related to child immediate and prolonged delay of gratification at age 3, and maternal sensitivity was related to working memory skills at age 4. No evidence of differential susceptibility to maternal parenting was found, based on differences in infant cortisol stress response

Harry Harlow's pit of despair: Depression in monkeys and men

Major depressive disorder is the most common mood disorder in the United States today and the need for adequate treatment has been universally desired for over a century. Harry Harlow, famous for his research with rhesus monkeys, was heavily criticized when he undertook his controversial experiments trying to find a solution for depression in the 1960s–1970s. His research, however, did not just evolve gradually from his earlier research into learning and into love. Recently disclosed hand-written notes show, for the first time, the severity of Harlow's depressions as he wrote in detail about his feelings and thoughts during his stay in a mental hospital in 1968. In these notes, Harlow repeatedly vowed to put every effort into finding a cure for depression. This may, for a large part, explain why he did not stop his rigorous animal experiments where critics argue he should have, and he eventually managed to book positive results

IQ of children growing up in children's homes: A meta-analysis on IQ delays in orphanages

In this meta-analysis of 75 studies on more than 3,888 children in 19 different countries, the intellectual development of children living in children's homes (orphanages) was compared with that of children living with their (foster) families. Children growing up in children's homes showed lower IQ's than did children growing up in a family (trimmed d = 0.74). The age at placement in the children's home, the age of the child at the time of assessment, and the developmental level of the country of residence were associated with the size of the delays. Children growing up in children's homes show a substantial lower level of IQ (average IQ of 84) than their peers reared in (foster) families (average IQ of 104), and the difference amounted to 20 IQ points. More research is needed to defect the causes of the large IQ delays and to test ways of improving the intellectual development of millions of children in orphanages around the world

IQ of Children Growing Up in Children’s Homes: A Meta-Analysis on IQ Delays in Orphanages

In this meta-analysis of 75 studies on more than 3,888 children in 19 different countries, the intellectual development of children living in children’s homes (orphanages) was compared with that of children living with their (foster) families. Children growing up in children’s homes showed lower IQ’s than did children growing up in a family (trimmed d = 0.74). The age at placement in the children’s home, the age of the child at the time of assessment, and the developmental level of the country of residence were associated with the size of the delays. Children growing up in children’s homes show a substantial lower level of IQ (average IQ of 84) than their peers reared in (foster) families (average IQ of 104), and the difference amounted to 20 IQ points. More research is needed to detect the causes of the large IQ delays and to test ways of improving the intellectual development of millions of children in orphanages around the world

The association between child maltreatment and juvenile delinquency in the context of Situational Action Theory:Crime propensity and criminogenic exposure as mediators in a sample of European youth?

The current study investigates the association between physical child maltreatment and juvenile delinquent behavior in the context of the Situational Action Theory (SAT) (Wikström, 2006, 2017, 2020). Self-control, morality and exposure to criminogenic settings are proposed as possible mechanisms explaining the association between physical child maltreatment and adolescent offending. The hypotheses are tested in a subsample of the third wave of the International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD3), a large international non-clinical study on delinquency and victimization among adolescents. The final sample consists of N = 24,956 adolescents aged 12–16 years from nine West European countries. While controlling for dependence due to nested data and several covariates, the models are tested for overall offending and separately for violent and property offending. Results confirm that physical child maltreatment is associated with the main concepts of SAT (lower self-control; lower morality; and more exposure to criminogenic environments), which in turn are associated with juvenile delinquency. The models show partial mediation for overall offending, property offending and violent offending. The findings provide support for the theoretical prowess of SAT and its main concepts: self-control, morality and exposure to criminogenic settings as mediators in the well-established physical child maltreatment/delinquency link. These findings are consistent with the ‘cycle of violence’ perspective and contribute to the theoretical clarification of the mechanisms involved in the child maltreatment/delinquency link. The findings fail to confirm a ‘crime-specific propensity’. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for prevention

Psychotic experiences and future school performance in childhood: a population-based cohort study

BACKGROUND: Psychotic experiences are common in childhood and an important risk indicator of adverse mental health outcomes. However, little is known about the association of psychotic experiences with functional outcomes in childhood, particularly regarding school performance. The aim of the present study was to examine whether psychotic experiences were prospectively related to school performance in childhood. METHODS: This study was embedded in the population-based Generation R Study (N = 2,362). Psychotic experiences were assessed using self-reports on hallucinations at age 10 years. School performance was assessed using a standardized national school performance test at age 12 years. We considered the total school performance score, as well as language and mathematics subscales. Analyses were adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics, maternal nonverbal IQ, nonverbal IQ at age 6 years and co-occurring psychopathology at age 10 years. RESULTS: Psychotic experiences were prospectively associated with poorer school performance scores (B = -0.61, 95% CI [-0.98;-0.25], p = .001), as well as poorer language (Bpercentile rank score = -2.00, 95% CI [-3.20;-0.79], p = .001) and mathematical ability (Bpercentile rank score = -1.75, 95% CI [-2.99;-0.51], p = .006). These associations remained after additional adjustment for nonverbal IQ at age 6 years (B = -0.51, 95% CI [-0.86;-0.16], p = .005), and co-occurring internalizing (B = -0.40, 95% CI [-0.77;-0.03], p = .036) and externalizing problems (B = -0.40, 95% CI [-0.75;-0.04], p = .029), but not attention problems (B = -0.10, 95% CI [-0.47;0.26], p = .57). CONCLUSIONS: Children with psychotic experiences had lower school performance scores than their nonaffected peers. The finding was independent of sociodemographic characteristics, intelligence and co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems, but not attention problems. This study suggests that psychotic experiences are associated with childhood functional impairments, although the relatively small effects and the role of attention problems warrant further exploration

The interparental relationship: Meta-analytic associations with children's maladjustment and responses to interparental conflict

The aim of the current meta-analysis was to aggregate concurrent and longitudinal empirical research on associations between the interparental relationship and both children's maladjustment (i.e., externalizing and internalizing symptoms) and children's responses to interparental conflict (i.e., emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and physiological). Based on major theoretical frameworks, we distinguished between six dimensions of the interparental relationship: relationship quality, conflict frequency, hostile, disengaged, and unconstructive forms of conflict, and child-related conflict. A final selection of 169 studies for child maladjustment and 61 studies for child responses to conflict were included. The findings revealed by the expansive and fine-grained approach of this meta-analysis support and challenge theoretical hypotheses about the relative predictive value of dimensions of the interparental relationship for children's functioning. Although hostility was specifically more strongly associated with children's externalizing behavior and emotional responses to conflict, disengaged and unconstructive conflict behavior posed similar risks for the other domains of child functioning. In addition, relationship quality, conflict frequency, and child-related conflict warrant more attention in theoretical frameworks, as these dimensions posed similar risks to child functioning as the different forms of conflict. Moreover, most associations between the interparental relationship and child functioning endured over time. Also, developmental and gender differences appeared to depend on the specific forms of interparental conflict and the domain of child functioning. In sum, the results support the growing consensus that prevention and intervention programs aimed at children's mental health could benefit from an alternative or additional focus on the interparental relationship. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

The role of supportive parenting and stress reactivity in the development of self-regulation in early childhood

Maternal sensitivity and supportive discipline are important determinants of child self-regulation. Some evidence suggests that specific genetic or temperamental markers determine children's susceptibility to the impact of maternal parenting on child self-regulation. Cortisol reactivity as a susceptibility marker moderating the relation between maternal parenting and child self-regulation has not yet been studied. In this longitudinal population-based study (N = 258), the moderating role of infant cortisol stress response to the Strange Situation Procedure at age 1 was examined in the association between parenting (sensitivity and supportive discipline) at age 3 and child self-regulation at age 3 and 4. Maternal sensitivity and supportive discipline were related to child immediate and prolonged delay of gratification at age 3, and maternal sensitivity was related to working memory skills at age 4. No evidence of differential susceptibility to maternal parenting was found, based on differences in infant cortisol stress response